How To Handle Drizzt

[seina]

I just saw that the famous (or infamous.. depending on whether the thought of everyone's favorite Drow With A Heart Of Gold makes you want to cheer or vomit blood through your nose) Drizzt has signed up to go to the Abyss.

Now.. of course I am not sure if Ancient is actually going to take any of these -actual- epics along for the ride, so this is just a philosophical discussion at this point. And.. props to Ancient for thinking up and executing this very intense, very epic quest in the first place. (Don't want that to get lost in this. )


How would the average PC react when met with Drizzt.. who -looks- like any other drow? How would the average -elf- react?

I have read most of the Drizzt books and I truly love the "tortured soul" character. I love that even though he saves the world over and over, he still was never allowed to walk openly in Silverymoon. And why.. because when you get right down to it.. he is a drow.. one of the most -hated- races in the world.. with good cause, I might add.

Of course, every PC is unique and some are far more tolerant than others. That is understood. Although, if a drow popped up next to -any- of our characters -anywhere-, they would get attacked (or we would emote rushing forward to attack or shouting warnings or whatever). So I am not really asking what your PC would do, although that is an interesting conversation as well.

My thoughts are this..

Drizzt would be attacked on sight.

Everyone is jumpy due to the Mad Mage. Drizzt looks like any other drow. So unless he is well covered and/or someone warned everyone first.. someone that everyone trusts.. I would think he would be a pin-cushion before he could sigh one tortured sigh.

I could also see the vast majority of elves flatly refusing to walk with him.. no matter what anyone says.

Thoughts?

[Charon's Claw]

Prestigious adventurers know other prestigious adventurers... though it's up to your character I suppose. PC's aren't average people as commoners are.

[longearmage]

Bardic rumor-mill says:

Drizzt Do'Urden has lavender eyes, not red. This distinguishes him from other drow. Don't examine the eyes of every drow you see (because that will make you a pincushion), but if something looks off from the norm, stay your blade, bow, axe, whatever.

[qewaye]

One of my characters encountered Drizzt in the Hullack and initially, hid. All my PC could see was a scary-looking Drow..at night....with deadly blades killing spiders, I ignored the name above him...until he introduces himself or someone else does, shouldn't he just provoke the same reaction as any other drow?

[Teneas]

Pretty sure Ten would just kill him...or try, no matter what he said or did. But as it is not a question about what our pcs would do....heh..not sure how you handle that.


PS. I hate "good drow"

[soulfien]

Garistan has heard the tale but doesn't believe it. Glenduil has never heard of him. Both hate drow. Garistan would attack him on sight if we're out in the wild. Just another npc hostile drow as far as my screen is concerned.

If encountered in a city I would simply sneer and taunt and threaten, but not kill him as that would probably land me in jail for attacking the one good drow in all of faerun.

After meeting him (provided the meeting was held in a town full of humans who hate drow) he wouldn't be inclined to kill him... just regard him as odd througout the whole trip and be leery of him.

Also... to my knowledge, no one has ever mentioned to Garistan that Drizzt has different colored eyes. Or that he wields twin scimitars.

[Deleted]

Drizzt usually doesn't walk into situations where he is going to be attacked on sight, he will often go cloaked and hooded into an area where the residents are unfamiliar with him, i.e. outside of the sword coast north.

In the case that he is attacked, he has proven quite adept at escaping and/or defeating those who attack him.

That being said, the amount of players who have risen to super high levels and could band together and kill Drizzt is, pardon me for saying so, completely ridiculous!

Something else is completely ridiculous as well, the low statistics that have repeatedly been printed for him. He is a character who obviously has at least three epic feats (Improved Whirlwind Attack, Extra Magic Item Slot - Bracers, and Perfect Two Weapon Fighting), but writers insist on printing him as a non-epic character. He also normally travels with a band of adventurers who are obviously -not- bad guys, King Bruenor Battlehammer, Wulfgar, Cattie-brie, Regis, and last but not least his Figurine of Wonderous Power (who they luckily did give better stats than the typical panther figurine).

My take on dealing with Drizzt in this instance is that he would discretely contact the authorities to volunteer, and he would be there -with the authorities- when PCs begin to arrive. They would introduce him in a non-hostile setting, while he was still disguised with a hood and cloak. Only after explaining his presence and his identity would he unhood himself and meet the characters.

Edit: During 1372 he might still have the mask of disguise that can make him appear as a normal elf. He always hated using it though, and it wouldn't really matter since -almost- every PC on the server who has the means to buy truesight potions, or cast the spell, are under the effects of said spell 90% of the time.

[z1gg3h]

Doigan: Insult him like any other elf.
Dy'ner: Be somewhat wary but won't show any hostile motions.
Vilith: Kill or die trying. Repeatedly.
Deldur: Point, laugh, yell something like and wander off.

[Deleted]

Oh yeah....my character would try to buy some drow evermead off him, and that failing, politely exit stage left.

[Deleted]

Hmmm. Well. . .as High Herald said Drizzt does usually travel with a group of adventurers who are obviously not villains. And he will likely be in disguise and introduced to the party in a none hostile setting by the people our characters trust. I would imagine Drizzt would not act like your typical Drow, either. And as Silverstring said, his eyes are a different color, which means he would look odd for a Drow.

That being said, Elvewyn would proboly not attack or provoke Drizzt. And he also would not speak to him unless spoken to first. Then again, Elvewyn has alot of lore and he would proboly have a good idea who the schimitar duel wielding Drow with lavender eyes is.

Personally, i think alot of adventurers would of heard some kind of story about Drizzt. Be it Tavern stories, to campfire stories.

~Sioladuil

[ancientempathy]

Neat discussion!

But...

You can handle Drizzt, by me marrying your character to him! BWAHAHA

[Micteu]

Feb 1, 2009 14:00:37 GMT -5 @ancientempathy said:

Neat discussion!

But...

You can handle Drizzt, by me marrying your character to him! BWAHAHA

No, never! Unless Drizzt is willing to play the girl role, of course. Uju's not picky.

Also, here's another thought. An indirect quote from Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn:
Protagonist: "Drizzt! Didn't I kill you already?"

Death is much lighter in the Forgotten realms. Let's just hope we don't have someone cast disintegrate on him.

[z1gg3h]

Feb 1, 2009 14:00:37 GMT -5 @ancientempathy said:

Neat discussion!

But...

You can handle Drizzt, by me marrying your character to him! BWAHAHA

That mean he swings both ways? Gods he's even hotter now >.>.

[Thrym]

Zae'd probably not be directly hostile even if he is obviously a drow, even before he hears who it is.

Brannon would probably be veeeery careful, and probably hasn't heard of Drizzt anyways.

... Now Jared would not care about some random drow at all untill he realizes it is Drizzt, the famous swordman. Then he'd challenge him to a sparring fight and rant Drizzt's pointy ears off about dual wielding scimitars being a silly style.

In general though, I'd think Drizzt would be very careful that no random nutjob adventurers figure out it's him.

[shimmerxxx]

Will he drop those two sweet scimitars like he did in Baldurs Gate when you killed him?

Wait, you say you weren't meant to kill him in Baldurs Gate... oops.

[maxwell]

Being that Maxwell is from Silverymoon and i'll be heading into the abyss whenever this quest goes on, Max would shake his hand and praise him for his good deeds like he would anyone who has done the same. I hope to see him, it would be cool to RP with someone behind actually playing him.

[vulpex]

Elvis of Forgotten Realms needs some serious security arrangements.

[seina]

Feb 1, 2009 14:00:37 GMT -5 @ancientempathy said:

Neat discussion!

But...

You can handle Drizzt, by me marrying your character to him! BWAHAHA

*eyes Ancient* You do realize that Tira will not even -say- the word "drow" nor allow it to be said in her presence without growling?

What a happy marriage that would be! As long as she were blind, they would get along really really well. ;D

[guest]

Feb 1, 2009 8:18:39 GMT -5 seina said:

I
How would the average PC react when met with Drizzt.. who -looks- like any other drow? How would the average -elf- react?

And why.. because when you get right down to it.. he is a drow.. one of the most -hated- races in the world.. with good cause, I might add.

Of course, every PC is unique and some are far more tolerant than others. That is understood. Although, if a drow popped up next to -any- of our characters -anywhere-, they would get attacked (or we would emote rushing forward to attack or shouting warnings or whatever). So I am not really asking what your PC would do, although that is an interesting conversation as well.

My thoughts are this..

Drizzt would be attacked on sight.



I could also see the vast majority of elves flatly refusing to walk with him.. no matter what anyone says.

Thoughts?

You summed it up perfectly. Unless your PC is from Ten Towns or Mithril Hall and even then soemtimes, he would be a drow. Not some famous fellow.

[Micteu]

Feb 1, 2009 16:15:56 GMT -5 shimmerxxx said:

Will he drop those two sweet scimitars like he did in Baldurs Gate when you killed him?

Wait, you say you weren't meant to kill him in Baldurs Gate... oops.

You can still pick-pocket them off him.

Feb 1, 2009 8:18:39 GMT -5 seina said:

Drizzt would be attacked on sight.

How do Kara-Turans in general regard the drow? Does the Underdark spread across Kara-Tur or maybe even to Anchorome and Maztica?

[Deleted]

Feb 1, 2009 23:22:53 GMT -5 guest said:

Feb 1, 2009 8:18:39 GMT -5 seina said:

I
How would the average PC react when met with Drizzt.. who -looks- like any other drow? How would the average -elf- react?

And why.. because when you get right down to it.. he is a drow.. one of the most -hated- races in the world.. with good cause, I might add.


Of course, every PC is unique and some are far more tolerant than others. That is understood. Although, if a drow popped up next to -any- of our characters -anywhere-, they would get attacked (or we would emote rushing forward to attack or shouting warnings or whatever). So I am not really asking what your PC would do, although that is an interesting conversation as well.

My thoughts are this..

Drizzt would be attacked on sight.



I could also see the vast majority of elves flatly refusing to walk with him.. no matter what anyone says.

Thoughts?

You summed it up perfectly. Unless your PC is from Ten Towns or Mithril Hall and even then soemtimes, he would be a drow. Not some famous fellow.

While some of this is true, saying that he wouldn't be some famous fella outside of ten towns and mithril hall just isn't close to being remotely true.

Drizzt is stated to be famous across the sword coast north, which happens to be a rather large area. Roughly 61,000 people live in this area and thats only the recorded population of a few of the largest cities and city states. The sword coast north isn't just ten towns and Mithril hall, in fact, Mithril Hall isn't part of the Sword Coast North region according to FRCS, it lies in the region of Silverymoon. So...there is another roughly 5000 people to add to the list of those who tentatively accept Drizzt. Considering he is also well known in Silverymoon, although not openly welcome...undoubtedly a known name, theres another 37,000 people who might not attack him on sight.

When you take a comprehensive look at the numbers, it doesn't look like he is quite as unknown as most people seem to think.

Edit: This in mind, how many of the PCs involved are from one of these two regions?

[Deleted]

Feb 2, 2009 0:23:50 GMT -5 Micteu said:

Feb 1, 2009 16:15:56 GMT -5 shimmerxxx said:

Will he drop those two sweet scimitars like he did in Baldurs Gate when you killed him?

Wait, you say you weren't meant to kill him in Baldurs Gate... oops.

You can still pick-pocket them off him.

Feb 1, 2009 8:18:39 GMT -5 seina said:

Drizzt would be attacked on sight.

How do Kara-Turans in general regard the drow? Does the Underdark spread across Kara-Tur or maybe even to Anchorome and Maztica?

I think elves in Kara-tur are about as socially accepted as orcs are in Faerun, and that is to say, generally viewed unfavorably.
I am sure a drow to them is about the same as any other elf.

Edit: To be clear, Kara-tur isn't really my area of expertise in the realms, this is information I think, I heard from Laurk, who plays Manshin and is pretty well studied on all things Kara-turan.

[Micteu]

Also, take a look at the situation. Drizz't may be more accepted because there are many normally-squabbling factions uniting against a common enemy. You character might say, "Well, if it wasn't nearly the end of the world, I'd kill this guy..."

[soulfien]

Just in case people have forgotten, Drizzt was NOT allowed to walk through SIlverymoon unmasked. Why? Because he's a drow.

Despite all he'd done for the Marches and no matter how many times he visited Alustriel's bedchambers, she would not allow him to walk through her city without a mask on.

So it's safe to say that a lot of people would find it good rp to fear a drow. I know that Garistan wouldn't be able to focus on the color of a drow's eyes at 20 paces which is perfect spellcasting range nor would he instantly be inclined to.

But of course this is if we just happened upon him or he shwoed up unannounced. If the Crown forewarns everyone who is to be at the meeting it'd go a lot smoother.

Edit: I've read the whole series and I liked it, though it got a bit silly at times with the numerous close calls where the Gods had to step in and literally shield him from dieing several times. And it's a bit silly how he fights with weapon finess while dual wielding 2 medium weapons, but whatever. Still a good read. But throughout the whole series he had to start all over everytime he went to a new area. I think at the end of the series maybe 5% of the people and adventurers actually knew who he was. and most of them wanted him dead anyway. ((the 5% figure is the approximate amount of people in a NEW location that knew him....))

[Munroe]

Feb 2, 2009 1:39:08 GMT -5 @soulfien said:

And it's a bit silly how he fights with weapon finess while dual wielding 2 medium weapons, but whatever.

Hmm... His stats in FRCS don't list him as having Weapon Finesse. He has Ambidexterity and Two-Weapon Fighting (which combine to have the same effect in 3e as Two-Weapon Fighting alone does in 3.5e). He also has Improved Two-Weapon Fighting for a second offhand attack, and Twin-Sword Style, a regional feat from FRCS that grants him a +2 AC bonus when fighting with any combination of two weapons on its list, which includes scimitars.

His attack bonus with the scimitars reflects his STR score, not his DEX score, which is much higher.
13 STR, 20 DEX.

He's level 16 with all classes granting fighter AB (ftr10/bbn1/rgr5). That's 16 BAB. Then he's got 13 STR, which is +1 for 17 AB. He's got Weapon Focus (scimitar) which is +1 for 18 AB. He has a +3 scimitar and a +2 scimitar. So that's +21 and +20 respectively. When using Two-Weapon fighting feat with two medium weapons, the penalty is -4, which brings him down to +17 for the primary hand and +16 for the offhand.

At least that's how he's written in 3e FRCS. The D&D rules allow for dual-wielding two medium weapons, it's just not as munchkin as using a light weapon offhand.

I'm sure they revised his stats for 3.5e but I'd have to dig harder to find that. Maybe they gave him Weapon Finesse there since he does have a feat open up with the removal of Ambidexterity from the rules in 3.5e. I'm not sure where the 3.5e stats appear though.

[Haydena]

Feb 2, 2009 1:39:08 GMT -5 @soulfien said:

Edit: I've read the whole series and I liked it, though it got a bit silly at times with the numerous close calls where the Gods had to step in and literally shield him from dieing several times.

Erm, drama? A novel wouldn't be that interesting if at the end of the first chapter someone landed a critical hit on the hero and the rest of the book explained how he bleeds death, then gets carried about by orcs as a trophy.

[shimmerxxx]

Feb 2, 2009 2:57:42 GMT -5 Munroe said:

His attack bonus with the scimitars reflects his STR score, not his DEX score, which is much higher.
13 STR, 20 DEX.

He's level 16 with all classes granting fighter AB (ftr10/bbn1/rgr5). That's 16 BAB. Then he's got 13 STR, which is +1 for 17 AB. He's got Weapon Focus (scimitar) which is +1 for 18 AB. He has a +3 scimitar and a +2 scimitar. So that's +21 and +20 respectively. When using Two-Weapon fighting feat with two medium weapons, the penalty is -4, which brings him down to +17 for the primary hand and +16 for the offhand.

So basically he won't be able to hit sod all in The Abyss then, sheesh talk about people signing up just for the glory.

[seina]

Feb 2, 2009 2:57:42 GMT -5 Munroe said:

He's level 16 with all classes granting fighter AB (ftr10/bbn1/rgr5).

He's level 16? Which would mean that he and Tira are on par with just how epic they are? And people like Sharita, Kelric, Taran and Teneas are far more "epic" than he is and can kick his little drow-bum back to Silverymoon?

*mind boggles*

See.. I think that all of these "epic" characters from the FR novels should be just that.. -epic-. Far more epic than -any- of our PCs, which are small potatoes in comparison to a character than hundreds of thousands of geeks people have read about. Please.. I hope that if anyone uses him or any of the other "famous" FR characters they make them a level that is unatainable by FRC standards.

That being said..

I still think he would be attacked on sight at worst.. mistrusted at best.. and that most elves would flat refuse to walk with him.

[vulpex]

Generally there has been inflation of levels since days of very old. I am reminded of Dragonlance characters who were around level 10 at best in time of the original books and modules, which i seem to have somewhere in my shelf.
It never makes any sense.

[Aodhan the Unusual]

Seeing as Torian has actually met Driz'zt, I would say it really depends on the situation. Torian was originally hired to kill the wayward drow, but in him saving her life, and the way she is, she turned around and saved his. Actually had a nice chat together in the wilds of the Storm Horns at the time. Of course, Torian has also attempted to make deals with Jar'laxle and various other not so goodly/friendly types, but that's just her.


When it comes to things like this, treat it as your character would. Elves would probably kill on sight. Humans would probably either run in fear or try to kill on sight. Etc., etc. Just remember, at first glance he IS a drow. Most people don't get past that part to find out who he really is nor care that he's supposedly good. After all, all drow are treacherous, backstabbing freaks.